apples in caramel - the French know how how to do simple and good
I haven’t exactly been on a health kick lately….
Note: the proportions are for my pan – which happens to be about 10inchs in diameter – you might need to scale this to work for you. I would say at least that the apples should be pretty packed into the pan (they shrink substantially when cooked).
- 1 pack of frozen puff pastry
- 6 large granny smith apples (I only ever buy Granny Smiths – there is nothing worse than a floury apple….)
- about 200g brown sugar
- about 150g butter
- a touch of alcohol (or at a pinch water). Use whatever you have, brandy, calvados, rum. It’s not so much for flavour (which is of course lovely) but from experience the caramel doesn’t work unless you add a bit of fluid. So if you don’t have suitable alcohol then a a bit of water.
- A good half and hour beforehand take the
- Peel, core and quarter the apples.
- Pack them into the pan so that they are pretty well packed in there.
- Roughly chop the butter and dot it around the apples.
- Sprinkle the sugar about the apples.
- Pour the alcohol over the apples.
- Turn the oven on to 200C.
- Place the pan on a gentle heat (maybe 3 out of 6).
- Stir gently once in a while to help the caramel along.
- Whilst the apples are cooking, role out the pastry so that it’s a bit bigger than your pan.
- When the apples have have had about 20-30 mins (or when the caramel looks caramelly and the apples have begun to soften) place the pastry carefully over the apples and tuck it into the sides.
- Move the pan to the oven.
- When the pastry has puffed up and browned nicely take the tarte from the oven and turn out (almost immediately – otherwise you’ll never get it out of the pan) onto a large plate.
- Slice and serve with vanilla ice cream.